[German Version] is a term coined by the historian G. Oestreich for the military and bureaucratic control of people’s life and work in an absolutist territorial state. In a broader sense, it denotes the structural social homogenization of subjects in modern (and early modern) states by formal moral control and church discipline. The term was used heavily in the research paradigm ofconfessionalization (Schilling). The concept is related to the theory of N. Elias – recently challenged – that the structure of our complex modern society since the ¶ Middle Ages has meant increasing sel…

[German Version]
I. Church History1. General. The term
Neo-Lutheranism refers to the 19th-century theological and ecclesiological movement that sought to turn its back on the Enlightenment and rationalism and to renew Lutheranism (Lutherans) on the basis of strict fidelity to Scripture and the Lutheran confessions. Although the term, coined (as Ger.
Neuluthertum) by K. Schwarz (
Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, 1856, 353), was intended to emphasize the difference between a Neo-Lutheranism and old Lutheranism (
Altluthertum), it soon came to designate those who wan…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Canon Law
I. Church History Censorship is the partial or total suppression of written or printed works based on prior or subsequent ecclesiastical or governmental examination. The NT already rejects false teaching (Tit 3:9f.), and the development of the NT canon presupposes a process of censorship. In the Early Church and the Middle Ages, heresy was condemned by synods and bishops, but actual censorship of books was practiced only in is…

[German Version] I. Denominations: Lutheran Churches in History – II. Lutheran Churches Today – III. Statistical Survey – IV. Missions – V. Ecumenism
I. Denominations: Lutheran Churches in History1. GeneralLutheranism denotes that portion of Christianity that traces its historical and theological origin to the Reformation of Martin Luther and uses his works as its theological foundation. The Latin terms
Lutherani and
Lutheranismus were coined originally by Roman Catholic opponents of the Reformation movement in order to identify it as heretical (firs…

[German Version]
I. Religious Studies Religions have various assessments and guidelines regarding sexuality, which shape the concrete ways people deal with it and influence certain social attitudes. Religious sexual morality (Sexual ethics) regulates sexual relations through various sexual taboos and by ¶ prohibiting premarital and extramarital sex as well as homosexuality, but also by requiring temporary continence, for instance during menstruation or periods of fasting. It protects procreation (Generativity) in general by commandments…